MK Orlev: Public Religious Ed. Losing to Material Perks

Chairman Zevulun Orlev of the Knesset subcommittee on religious education said, Tuesday, that the Ministry of Education and the Religious Education Administration were to be praised for their decision to operate a program in the societal periphery to prevent the exodus of students from the public religious education system to the unofficial non-Zionist realm.

Member of Knesset Orlev stressed that the main reason for the exodus was material and financial benefits that unofficial education was using to lure families. Those benefits include transportation, a long school day and a long school year, as well as summer programs for children and adults. He said all these benefits come from state budgets by virtue of the hareidi political parties exploiting their status.